Trekking in Phong Dueat Park

We signed up for a two-day trek into the mountains north of Chiang Mai.  In addition to us, the group included a couple from Flagstaff Az and a young couple from Gdansk Poland.  The trip goes up into Phong Dueat National Park, which is home to many hill tribe village communities.  After about an hour of driving, first stop was the Mork Fa waterfall.  We did a little wading, but it was too cold to swim at the base of the falls.  Next we stopped at the Phong Dueat geyser, where water boils up out of the ground and flows into a series of bathing pools.  After a great lunch of rice with chicken and veggies we had time for a little soak in the pools before starting our hike.  We walked up and over a ridge to our first stop at a small Karen village (about 14 families).  Two women were pounding rice with a foot-operated press.  But, there are photovoltaic panels provided by the government, one for each two houses, to provide some electricity to the village.  Then, up and over another ridge for a couple of hours to another, slightly larger, village where we spent the night. 

We arrived just as it was starting to get dark, and took turns showering (cold water under a hose) by candlelight before dinner.  Our guide, Doh, prepared a great meal of chicken and vegetables over rice, and we were able to buy beers (!).  This village connects to the outside world by a large enough trail to accommodate small motor bikes, handy for carrying their crops out and bringing supplies in.  We were housed in a large room in a community building, thin mattresses on the floor with mosquito nets over, and blankets to supplement our Dream Sacks (very light silk sleeping bag liners, which we brought from home).  Even though we were quite hot hiking during the day, it was very cold over night.  In the morning we could see our breath, and several families had small fires going next to their homes to warm up.

After a hearty breakfast we hiked about an hour to another village where we picked up elephants for the next leg of the trek.  The elephants carried us downstream, crossing several times from one side of the river to the other, for about an hour.  We sat side by side on a wooden bench on the elephant’s back while Doh rode on the elephant’s head in front of us.  We ended up at another small river-side village where a bamboo raft was under construction and almost ready to carry us downstream for the remainder of the trip.  The raft ride was mostly relaxing and occasionally exciting (several class 2 rapids).  Doh stood on the front and used a long piece of bamboo to pole the bottom or push off rocks for steering.  Our young Polish companion stood at the back with another pole to help; the rest of us just sat on the raft and enjoyed the ride.  We finished rafting at the village of Sop Kai, which is at the end of the road and a starting point for several whitewater excursions that head further downstream.  After lunch there, we had a two-hour ride in the truck back to town.

Although fun, the trek was a little unsatisfying because we had only minimal and superficial contact with the villagers.  At each village, people were very friendly, and women were there to sell us jewelry and other items they’d made.  But we didn’t come away with a complete and genuine sense of their lives.   Two days just isn’t enough time; we look forward to longer treks as we head onward.